▪ I. pander, n.
(ˈpændə(r))
Also 6– pandar, 6–7 pandare, pandor.
[Properly pandar, orig. Pandare, Eng. of AFr. form of L. Pandarus, Gr. Πάνδαρος, a proper name used by Boccaccio (in form Pandaro), and after him by Chaucer in Troilus and Criseyde, as that of the man fabled to have procured for Troilus the love and good graces of Chryseis, name and character being alike of mediæval invention: see Skeat Chaucer II. Introd. lxiii-iv. The later spelling pander is due, no doubt, to association with agent-ns. and freq. vbs. in -er.]
1. (With capital initial.) As proper name.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus i. 548 A frend of his þat called was Pandare [rimes care, fare]. Ibid. 582 This Pandare, þat neigh malt for sorwe and routhe. Ibid. 822 And how þat hym soth seyde Pandarus. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iii. ii. 210 Pandarus. If euer you proue false one to another, since I haue taken such paines to bring you together, let all pittifull goers betweene be cal'd to the worlds end after my name: call them all Panders. |
2. A go-between in clandestine amours; one who supplies another with the means of gratifying lust; a male bawd, pimp, or procurer.
| 1530 Lyndesay Test. Papyngo 390 Pandaris, pykthankis, custronis, and clatteraris. 1579–80 North Plutarch (1612) 93 He that was the Pandor to procure her. 1591 Spenser M. Hubberd 808 Ne, them to pleasure, would he sometimes scorne A pandares coate (so basely was he borne). 1598 Shakes. Merry W. v. v. 176 One M{supr} Broome,..to whom you should haue bin a Pander. 1632 Lithgow Trav. i. 2 Ruffian Pandors..are now clothed..and richly rewarded. 1791 Mrs. Radcliffe Rom. Forest xiv, He now saw himself the pander of a villain. 1840 Macaulay Ess., Clive (1851) II. 534 Squandering his wealth on pandars and flatterers. 1869 Lecky Europ. Mor. I. xi. 293 The Pander and the Courtesan are the leading characters of Plautus. |
b. Less usually said of a woman: a panderess.
| 1585 Greene Planetomachia Wks. (Grosart) V. 77 Pasylla smiling at the diligent hast of the old Pandar [Clarista], commaunded she should be brought in. 1766 Fordyce Serm. Yng. Wom. (1767) I. vii. 304 Employed as a handmaid..if not as a pandar. 1853 Kingsley Hypatia xix. 223 Sorceress she was, pander and slave-dealer. |
c. transf. and fig. Said of a thing.
| 1582 Stanyhurst æneis, etc. (Arb.) 139 Forgerye thee pandar; thee messadge mockrye. 1622 Hakewill David's Vow iii. 113 The Eye beeing as it were the Pandar or Broker. a 1704 T. Brown Sat. on Quack Wks. 1730 I. 63 Thou church yard pimp, and pander to the grave. 1791 Burke App. Whigs Wks. VI. 40 Make virtue a pander to vice. |
3. One who ministers to the baser passions or evil designs of others.
| 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 7 One of her Eunuches, whom she purposed to use as her pander for the circumventing of the Patriarch. 1682 Dryden Medal 256 The Pander of the People's Hearts. 1752 Johnson Rambler No. 195 ¶12 In a place where there are no pandars to folly and extravagance. 1874 L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) II. iii. 92 He crowns a torrent of abuse by declaring that Scott has encouraged the lowest panders of a venal press. |
† 4. ? = bully 3, 4. Obs.
| 1592 G. Harvey Pierce's Super. Wks. (Grosart) II. 111 He would neuer dare me, like a bold Pandare, with such stout challenges. |
▪ II. pander, v.
(ˈpændə(r))
Also -ar.
[f. pander n.]
1. trans. To act as a pander to; to minister to the gratification of (another's lust). Also fig.
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. iv. 88 Since Frost it selfe, as actiuely doth burne, As Reason panders Will. 1666 E. M. Converted Twins ii. iii, Ah! that a Lady's love should be Thus pandar'd by a Gypsie. 1827 R. H. Dana Buccaneer xlii, Lust panders murder—murder panders lust! |
2. intr. To play the pander; to subserve or minister to base passions, tendencies, or designs. Const. to.
| 1603 [see pandering]. 1641 Milton Ch. Govt. ii. (1851) 64 Excommunication servs for nothing with them, but to prog, and pandar for fees. 1812 Southey Omniana II. 23 These traitors..who lampooned the noblest passions of humanity in order to pandar for its lowest appetites. 1868 J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. I. 359 He pandered to the king's gross immoralities. 1879 Black Macleod of D. xvi, Pandering to the public taste for pretty things. |
Hence ˈpandering vbl. n. and ppl. a.; ˈpanderer, one who panders; = pander n. 2.
| 1603 Dekker Wonderfull Yeare Wks. (Grosart) I. 90 To be plaid heere By English-men, ruffians, and pandering slaues. 1839 John Bull 29 Apr., Pretenders, panderers, parasites, hypocrites. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 41 He should be the enemy of all pandering to the popular taste. 1884 Rita Vivienne iv. iv, Panderers to popular taste and popular error. |